Authenticator
by PanicButton
Summary: ReidCentric,Hotch,OMC...follow up from Encounter with horror...Things move on...new job a robbery and lots of whump.
1. Chapter 1

Authenticator 

_A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out._

Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is not mine.

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A day of settling in and getting to know the new guy. Everyone seemed a bit subdued today and that wasn't really surprising; replacing Reid wasn't something which was coming easy to any of them. The only even slightly good thing about all of this was that Reid wasn't dead. He was just too messed up to be employable by the FBI anymore.

The new guy would probably fit in eventually the way Prentiss did and then Rossi, but Reid would be missed. Well at work he would be missed by Hotch but actually he was seeing more of him now than he did when he worked here. Well having more contact with him. Not having to just look at his back through the window.

Today though the team were showing the new guy around and settling down to paper work and drinking coffee and thinking about how things should be. How Gideon should still be here, how Elle should be here as well as Prentiss. How Reid should still be here. Glances over to the desk they were so used to seeing him sit at knowing he hadn't been well for a long time now. And now he was gone.

……………………

Reid stood in front of an empty display cabinet and frowned. Tomorrow there was going to be a new display in here. Rare manuscripts and letters. They wanted him to supervise the moving of these priceless items into this area for the grand opening of the new wing. Why they chose him – the new guy he didn't know but he was nervously happy about it. He looked at the space he had to fill again and imagined where he was going to suggest the things be put. This wasn't really what he had been employed to do. He was here to check things for authenticity. Staring at papers for hour after hour looking for the smallest inconsistency. Not the most exciting job in the world and nothing compared to his last one, but it was a job, and it kept Floyd happy and Aaron was pleased so if they were both happy he supposed he should be too.

There were some things he needed to check out down in storage so he carefully closed the empty cabinet and keeping the dimensions in his mind he walked off down to the basement to look at the little extras he was thinking of adding.

………………..

Floyd had spent the morning scrubbing the floor. Hands and knees. Using the mob had become a thing of the past. Now he had to be there face inches away from the wood so he could see every grain. He hardly ever left the apartment. He stayed here and cleaned all morning and made dolls all afternoon. Aaron sometimes came by, and often Spencer worked late. He was getting bored all alone all day and was running out of raw materials for his dolls. Eventually he would have to go out. He frowned and scrubbed harder. The skin on his knuckles was cracked and bleeding but still he didn't seem to be able to get this damned floor clean enough. He had every intention of spending the afternoon sewing at his table but as the elevator rattled up and the door opened he realised it was early evening.

He looked up at Hotch then down at Hotch's feet then at the floor and up at Hotch again. He sighed and stood up. "At least take your shoes off."

"You've been doing this all day again?" Aaron slipped off his shoes and picked them up.

"Time ran away with me. Look I know you don't think I should but I really need to get out of this place for a while. I was thinking as Spence isn't coming back 'til late I could go pick him up. I just need to get out."

Aaron walked around the edges of the room and put his shoes just inside the bedroom door. "You are asking my permission to leave? I advise you don't during the day purely because I don't think it advisable to be seen by the locals. Take my car and go get Spence if you want. I will cook up something like a pizza."

Floyd picked up the cleaning stuff and looked at the floor. "Tomorrow I need to get the kitchen done."

Hotch looked at the spotless gleaming kitchen and just nodded. The elevator was rattling its way down leaving Hotch standing alone in the kitchen. He shrugged and opened the freezer door. Pizza.

………………………..

Reid was on his knees with his hands laced behind the back of his head. He had blood running down his chin from a hit in the mouth from a gun butt. He felt sick and woozy. A gun was pressed against the back of his head.

"Are you Dr Reid?" A snarl from the man in a plain white mask.

"I don't have anything." The gun pressed harder.

"Are you Dr Reid?!"

"Yes." Trying to sound like he wasn't terrified.

"Get up. Get on your feet."

He felt the gun moving down as he stood on groggy feet and pressing now into his kidneys.

"The vault." Pushing Spencer forward with the barrel of the shot gun.

He stepped over the mess which used to be the assistant curator. He knew that they weren't afraid to kill and he was a nothing. Just the authentication expert – nothing important enough to keep him alive for but they asked for him by name. What the hell did they need him for? It was a walk down a flight of stairs down into the bowels of the building. He didn't know what they wanted with him but they weren't going to be getting it by way of him.

……………………..

Floyd stood in front of the blue painted door and rang the bell. He stood just out of sight of the spy hole. It would be nice to enter without smashing down the door. He didn't have to wait long before the door opened and a pleasant looking young man stood there with wide open eyes.

"May I come in?" And Floyd was pushing his way into the room.

"Erm." The guy closed the door and stood staring at Floyd.

"I thought you were dead."

"Ditto."

"Pardon?" The young man was looking very worried.

"When I tore your friends apart and ate their hearts and livers. I thought I had all of you but I missed you didn't I?"

Floyd walked over to the terrified guy and ran fingers over his face.

"Please don't. Whatever I did I am sorry."

"Whatever you did? You beat my lover. You took advantage of his weakness and his sexuality and kicked the shit out of him. You touched my things and dirtied them with your filth. You dared to despoil that which belongs to me. That is what you did."

"It it wasn't me!"

"You are Marty?"

A slow nod.

"Then my friend it was you and to be totally honest even if it wasn't I would still skin you alive and eat parts of you because that is what I do."

Marty turned to run but Floyd had a hand on the back of his neck his nails digging in drawing blood. A hand on the back of the man's shirt ripped it off and it would have been now Marty would have started to scream if Floyd hadn't thrown him down to the couch and pushed his face into the soft leather seat. Again digging his fingernails into the back of Marty's neck he began with bare hands to tear the flesh from the man's back.

It was a messy bloody affair but Floyd was careful. He needed long strips of this pale skin for a doll he had planned. Once the back was completed he flipped Marty over. He had stopped breathing at some point but that didn't matter. In fact it was even more fun. He felt for a pulse and found non.

Floyd had fun with Marty.

When the fun was over he ripped off fingers and toes and put them in his pocket for later. He went to the kitchen and got plastic wrap and after carefully folding his fine new collection of skins he wrapped them in the wrap. He liked to keep it moist.

He looked down at the dead ripped up form and smiled. Bending down he gave him a kiss goodnight and left the way he came in. The stuff he put on the back seat of the car and smiling a tight smirk he left to collect Reid.

…………………………

"Open the fucking vault freak!" Reid stood and shook his head.

As Floyd was getting into the car Reid was getting his face smashed against the vault door.

"Open it!"

A small voice "No."

………………………

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**A/N: I hate first chapters of new fics….please R&R and tell me if this is worth continuing :c) thank you!!!

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	2. Chapter 2 The Others

The Others.

_Mort__:- I don't respond well to intimidation. Makes me feel icky._

Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is not mine.

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Spencer could feel the fingers twisted around his long hair. His head pulled up and then slammed into the cold metal of the vault door again. He felt his nose crack and his mouth smash as more blood began to flow.

"Is it worth losing your life over a few bits of paper?"

"I won't d do it." Putting his hands to his face to check the damage. They pulled him away from the vault door and forced him down onto his knees.

"Right you little bastard. You saw what we did to your work mate. We will happily do the same to you if you don't open that vault. I am going to count to ten. If you are not at the door putting in the required numbers by then I will assume you are no good to me and I will spread your genius brains over the floor. Let's go.

"One."

Reid put his head down and looked at the floor.

"Two."

Desperately trying to work out what to do.

"Three."

They knew who he was.

"Four."

Referred to him as a genius.

"Five."

They knew more than just his name.

"Six."

Keeping him alive for a reason. He looked up.

"Seven."

If they needed him alive maybe they wouldn't kill him.

"Eight."

Maybe is a big risk to take for a bit of paper!

"Nine."

"OK OK." Starting to stand up.

"Ten!"

Staring down the barrel of a shot gun.

His heart thumping madly trying to keep some sign of control. "I'll do it. I'll open the vault."

"Too late."

"I said I will do it!" Trying to look past the gun to the vault door.

………………….

Floyd pulled up outside the building. He looked at his watch. Well it was Reid's watch he just used it sometimes – most of the time – well always. It was time Reid was out waiting for him – where the hell was he? He pulled out his cell phone and called Reid. Straight to voicemail. A frown. He turned off the engine and got out of the car. He walked up to the steps of the main doors. Locked. Another frown. If the doors were locked then where was Spencer? He pulled out his cell again and called Hotch.

"Is Spence there? Well everything is locked up here and he's not around. I'll go check it out, but I don't like the look of this. Something smells wrong – fine yes if you want to" a pause "how can you burn pizza?" A grin. "Never mind, get down here if you want. I need to see what's going on."

Floyd put his hand on the door and pushed it open. A quick glance was given to the security cameras and he walked slowly into the main foyer of the big old museum. He crouched and put his fingers to the floor and sniffed the air. Blood. He could smell a lot of blood. Either there had been an accident or – maybe- yes he could smell fear. He stood up and walked in the direction of the smell.

As he got closer he was more able to get a good direction. It was downstairs, he could tell that much, and he could smell Spence. He could smell blood. He could smell blood which wasn't Spencer's and he could smell fear which was. He crouched down again and sniffed at the air. Closing his eyes he tried to figure out distance. Though that was difficult when you had layers to deal with. As he started to stand he heard a voice.

"Shit it's Flanders." He spun as the shotgun fired and then fired again.

Another voice. "That can't be Flanders. He topped himself. Who the hell are you?"

Floyd was laying on his back his chest ripped open and half of his face torn off. "You son of a bitch whore." He muttered through a broken mouth before a pistol was rammed between his lips and the trigger pulled.

…………………..

Down in the vault someone had his hand pulling Spencer's head back and someone else – white mask guy – had a gun pressed under Reid's chin, when they heard gun fire from up stairs.

The pistol was removed and his hair released.

"I'll go check it." And blue mask was gone running up the stairs gun in hand.

White turned back to Reid. "So you are going to stop messing me around and open the vault?"

A nod. Spencer walked slowly to the vault door and pressed the code in to release the locks. Not an over complicated system. It made a hissing sound as the locks pinged back. Reid stood back from the door and waited. He closed his eyes and thought of Aaron and Floyd sure now that he had done as they asked he would be as dead as the assistant curator. The sudden pain across the side of his head just proved his point as all went black and with fresh blood running from a gash above his ear he fell in an ungainly heap on the floor.

…………………..

Aaron pulled up behind the car Floyd had been using. A frown. Now there was no Reid or Floyd. He flipped open his phone and called Floyd. It rang for a while but eventually went to voicemail. Odd – he didn't pick up. Hotch got out of the car and locked it and walked to Floyd's ride. There were rolls of something on the back seat and what looked to be blood on the driver's side. Another frown. He looked up towards the doors of the museum and walked up the stairs Floyd had not long before.

He pushed open the central door and stepped inside. Flanders had said the doors were locked so either he was wrong, had unlocked them somehow, or someone had unlocked them for him. Slowly pulled his gun and walked across the foyer.

It was as he rounded the corner he saw it. Floyd laying on his back, with a smear of brains on the floor behind him. Hotch just stood for a second and stared. He moved and put his back to the wall and listened. The ticking of the big clock hanging above the big sweeping stairs but nothing else though there was very obviously something going on here. He needed to call this in but looking down at Floyd he didn't know how he was going to explain it. Then again Reid was still in here somewhere. As he stepped back with the intention of leaving the building to call for back up he felt it against the back of his head.

"Drop the weapon Agent Hotchner."

He dropped the gun to the granite museum floor. This was worrying; this person knew who he was. Someone in a red mask walked in front of him and bent down, removing the gun in his ankle holster.

"Just slip that jacket off for me now will you?"

Slowly Hotch did as asked. Someone else took the jacket and laid it over Floyd. "I hate it when the flied start to crawl on the corpse."

"Now move forwards Hotchner." The gun still pressed to the back of is head. "And keep your hands where I can see them."

…………………..

They rolled Spencer over so he was on his front and used flexicuffs on hands pulled roughly behind his back. He was blindfolded and gagged. A small puddle of blood had now formed around his head from the head wound but nothing the guys in the masks were going to worry about. White mask looked up as Hotch appeared with his men behind him. "We brought something we could use to persuade Dr Reid to do as we ask." Red said.

Hotch looked down at Reid bleeding on the floor. He was facing Hotch so he could see the blood under his nose and he could also see the blood pooling around his head. At least – a small consolation – he was breathing steady – so he wouldn't be feeling the pain. Yet.

"What do you want?" Aaron wanted to try to get the guys talking, to try to work out what was going on here. They knew who he was and that was a bit worrying.

"Not to worry Agent Hotchner, your little buddy Dr Reid opened the vault for us. He just took some gentle persuading. Now hands behind your back please." Aaron carried on talking.

"If you have what you want why not just let us go. We haven't seen your faces and you have what you need so there is no point in ………."

He was cut off as the gun butt smacked him in the mouth. He staggered back a few steps and put a hand to his face. He could taste blood and could feel it filling his mouth. Aaron spat out the blood and started to talk again. "Just take me then, you have no use for him now." Looking at Reid.

Red mask moved to Reid and put his shot gun to the back of his head.

"How right you are. Now put your hands behind your back before he meets the same sticky end as that friend of yours up stairs. Hotch felt a twist of fear for Reid and another one of worry for Floyd and slowly put his hands behind his back. Someone cuffed his wrists as another removed Hotch's tie.

Hotch watched a guy in a black mask leave the vault with a large bag in his hands. "I have it. Let's get us the hell out of here."

They pushed Hotch forwards but not out the way he had arrived. Out of the corner of his eye he could see someone grab Reid by the ankles and start to drag him behind them. As they went down yet another flight of stairs he could hear Spencer's head and face smacking against the stone steps. "Please let me carry him. You will kill him." He needed to do something to help the man he loved.

"Shut your mouth." And then the sharp pain of something smacking into the back of his head. For a small while he just stood then slowly as he felt the blood oozing and soaking into the back of his pale blue shirt he went down to his knees. Aaron tried to put his hands out to stop him self from falling on his face and could just see Spencer being dragged past him, leaving a smear of blood behind him. He needed desperately to reach out and touch him as he felt the sudden pain in the side of his head and he slid sideways into darkness.

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_Mort__:- Shit, shit, shit, shit. Stupid, stupid, stupid

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	3. Chapter 3 A New Place to Stay

A New Place to Stay

_Eleanor Roosevelt: -You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do._

Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is not mine.

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Floyd rolled over and moaned. His primal instinct was to get away now. He crawled through slime which had once been inside his skull and tried to make his way to the way out. He would be absolutely no help to Spence right now. There as something draped over him and in trembling hands he dragged it with him. He had to get out before anyone arrived. His face was tingling and itching as was the back of his head and his breathing which seemed to be coming in short stuttery bursts wasn't the most comfortable experience he had ever had.

Trailing slime and blood and ooze and other unknown bodily fluids behind him he reached the doors he had entered by. Luck was in that he could push the door from this side too, and now a head first crawl down the steps to the car.

He managed the first two steps and then his arms gave way and with a little moan he rolled the rest of the way stopping tight against the front wheel of his car. He picked up the thing he had been carrying. Slowly he managed to open the back door of the car and drag himself in. He threw the body parts onto the floor and pulled the handy dandy car blanket over himself, closed his eyes and slept.

…………………….

Spencer awoke to darkness. He could feel movement of a vehicle he was in. Laying on his front. He tried to move his hands but they were still cuffed. A little go at twisting didn't produce anything but further discomfort so for now he stopped. He could feel the almost suffocating feel of the gag and he knew that there was something covering his eyes to prevent him from seeing anything and to keep him disorientated. His only hope was that either Hotch or Flanders would come looking for him and soon.

Now his worry was what they wanted with him now. He had opened the vault for them, but that wasn't really what they wanted him for. If that was all then the curator would have been the more likely choice to make and he would have been the one with the bullet to his brain, but they had checked names first and had kept him alive for a reason and that reason was worrying him. Again he twisted his hands and this time he tried to get the blindfold off but it just wouldn't budge.

Concentrate. Feel how the road is. Try to overlay it with a map. Fit it in somewhere. Just concentrate. But his head was too woozy for him to get it to do what he wanted so he just lay and waited. No point in antagonising them.

………………….

Aaron too was blindfolded and gagged. His hands still held behind his back and now he feet held together too. He tried to work out if where he was and pretty soon realised he was in the trunk of a car. He had wanted Reid to be here with him so he could at least try to comfort him in some way, but he was alone, which meant Reid was alone. It made Aaron's knot of pain increase as he thought how scared Reid must be. Though after all he had been through recently a whack on the head and being restrained shouldn't alarm him too much. He hoped. And what of Floyd. Had he recovered enough to get out of there? Hotch found no reason to kick and make a fuss right now. He needed to conserve his strength for when he was released from here.

………………..

Floyd slipped a hand into Hotch's jacket pocket and felt around for a phone. For now he daren't open his eyes. The pain of healing was too great to allow for that. He curled up on the back seat and held Aaron's cell phone in his hand. What to do? Call someone? Leave a message? He didn't think he would be able to talk yet and he didn't know who he could trust. It would have to be pot luck anyway. He flipped the phone open and pressed from memory speed dial four. It rang three times before it was picked up.

"Hotch?" It was Morgan.

Floyd was unable to answer so he just held the phone to his ear and listened.

"Hotch is there a problem?"

Floyd cut off the line and redialled.

"Hotch what's wrong? Where the hell are you?"

Again he cut the line and redialled. _'Come on Morgan get the call traced.'_

"Hotch I am going to get the call traced. Stay on the line man!"

Huzzah! Flanders kept the phone to his ear but let go of it and in a very Reidonian way laying on his side he wrapped his arms around his knees. This pain he needed to block, but this fear of what had happened to Hotch and Spence was over riding his ability to dull his dreadful ache as his body pulled it's self back together and healed.

………………………

The movement stopped and now Reid could feel hands pulling him from the van. His legs were shaking and his head spinning too much as he fell to his knees on the dirt pathway the van had stopped on.

"Get up." A voice probably from Red.

Spencer tried to get up out of the dirt but he was so disorientated now that he couldn't work out how to make his legs work properly. He felt hands on his chest as he was pushed backwards into the dirt and then his feet being held as he was dragged through the dirt. He could hear another vehicle pull up and the engine stop just as his head smacked on a door step and sent him dizzying back into darkness.

……………………..

They dragged Hotch out of the back of the car and made him stand. It was pleasing to see that he was stronger than the Dr. This was going to work out fine. They removed his ankle restraints and guided him slowly the way they had just dragged Reid. Up a step and into a building. It had a good echo to it and it had an unused musty smell about it. He was taken down a corridor and then down a flight of stairs. He heard the creak of a door opening and his hands were untied as he was pushed into a room and the door slammed and locked behind him.

……………………..

Morgan stood now in front of the museum. He could see Hotch's car and another parked illegally outside the building. Hotch's car was locked but looking in with his torch he could see nothing. He moved to the second car. Hotch had to be here somewhere, the cell signal was still live. He shone his torch into the front of the second car and could see blood smeared on the seat of the driver side. A frown and he tried the door handle. The car wasn't locked. The frown deepened as he shone the light onto the back seat. There was someone there. Under the blanket. Someone unmoving. Dead?

He jumped out of the car and moved around to the back seats. He opened the door carefully now with a gun in his hand and pulled the blanket off the form laying there. At first Morgan was confused. Who the hell was this person? He still had Hotch's phone gripped vice like in his hand. Morgan took the phone and spoke. "Thank you Garcia. I am there." And before she could ask questions he didn't know the answer to he cut the call.

……………………….

Hotch found he was in an almost square room. The walls pained pale green. No window, and it didn't seem like there were any cameras. The door was metal and heavy looking with a small window almost central. There was a bed and a toilet and that was all. At least they meant to keep him alive. His fear now was for Spencer. He sat on the bed and felt his wounds. Nothing spectacular, just enough to do its job. These guys knew what they were doing.

…………………….

Reid woke up in a room very much like the one Hotch was in. He moaned and rolled over from laying on his back to laying on his front. He wanted to get up but didn't know if he had the strength in him to do it and so crawled to the mattress on the floor and curled up. The blood was dried and stiff on his face and over the shirt he was wearing. His face was heavily bruised with a split lip and his cheek cut. He felt carefully over his face and could feel a cut in his eyebrow and another on his hairline. He hoped again that Hotch or Floyd knew where he was and then lay awake refusing to sleep trying to work out who these people were, going over previous cases and trying to fit the voices to faces he might know.

…………………….

Hotch was sitting on the bed with his head in his hands when the door suddenly opened. A man in a green mask stood at the door and rolled a bottle of water over to Aaron. "I expect you are getting thirsty. The boss told me to give you this."

Aaron turned his head slowly to look at the man. "Dr Reid. Where is he? What do you want with us?"

"Dr Reid I am afraid didn't make it." He stood back from the door and closed it as Aaron felt his world crumble.

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	4. Chapter 4 Surprise

Surprise

_You can chain me, you can __torture__ me, you can even destroy this body, but you will never imprison my mind. __Mahatma Gandhi_

Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is not mine.

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Reid was curled up trying to stay awake. He rocked and curled his toes inside his shoes and tried to keep his eyes open. Until he knew what these people wanted he was loath to rest and let his guard down too much. He started to recite in his mind the works of Nietzsche.

When the door opened he glanced over to see four men in masks. One was holding a long split cane, one had a tool box of some kind, one was holding a Polaroid camera and the last one a small bowl.

"Get up."

Reid moved slowly his head spinning his legs still like jelly.

"Strip."

A slow careful shake of the head and a very quiet "No."

It did him no good though, his shirt was ripped from him and as one of them held him another stripped him of the rest of his clothing.

"On your hands and knees."

Terror ripped through Spencer but he didn't move. "No." A small whisper – knowing they would force him anyway.

They all backed away from him except the guy with the split cane. "You will regret your decision to defy us." The cane swiped Reid across the top of his leg. He yelled out in pain and took as step back. Now the cane hit him across the upper arm and then as he move his arms to protect him self it caught him across the chest. Reid howled in pain as the cane split his skin and sent dribbles of blood down his arm leg and chest.

"On your knees Dr Reid." A polite request which Reid obeyed. It didn't save him from the cane though. He felt it across the back of his neck, across his back, ripping at his white flesh. Every now and again the flash from a camera. He screamed in agony and tried to crawl away but the cane continued to come down time after time until Spencer collapsed and curled up on the floor whimpering and crying for them to stop.

They pushed him over so he was laying on his front, in his daze he could feel the blood trickling down his side but the agony he was in prevented him from moving. Someone walked over and dipped the top half of Reid's shirt in his blood and with a dropper sucked up some blood and sprayed Reid's trousers. Now the guy with the tool box came over. He opened it up and pulled out a bottle of something red. He held it carefully over the side of Reid's head and squeezed some of the dark red liquid over Spencer's head, letting it run down his face. They watched and let it pool around his head and face.

The guy with the small bowl now moved forwards and poured the messy contents on the floor behind Spencer's head.

"Open your eyes."

He did as they asked slowly opening them as more pictures were taken. They smiled and left the room. Spencer started to curl up on the floor when someone else came in with a hose and silently hosed all the mess off him. He closed leaving Reid shivering and in agony unable to move on the concrete floor of his new home.

……………………….

The door suddenly swung open pulling Hotch from the nightmares he had running around in his mind. The images of Spencer and what they might have done to him, remembering the sound of his head hitting the stone steps, seeing that smear of blood as they dragged him. Had he been dead by then? Then the image of Floyd laying looking very dead with his face and chest ripped apart and the back of his head missing. Was he the only person who knew what had happened. Was he putting hope in Floyd recovering from that damage in time?

"Face the wall." Hotch slowly stood and walked to the nearest bit of wall.

"Can you tell me why you have me here?" A punch to the back of the head jerked Aaron's head forwards and smacked it on the wall.

"Just keep your mouth shut pervert."

Hotch could feel a trickle of blood running down his face.

"We have a lovely surprise for you Agent Hotchner. I know you are going to miss your little sidekick so we thought we would provide you with some memories but to make it more exciting I am going to have to blindfold you first. So Agent Hotchner let us start with you putting your hands behind your back again."

Hotch did as requested and felt the coldness of metal cuffs snapping around his wrists. Now something was being wrapped around Aaron's eyes to stop him from seeing what they had done as the 'surprise.' They dragged him back to the bed and pulled him right back against the wall. Now he could feel them putting a collar around his neck and hooking it to a ring on the wall behind him. They rebound his feet and fixed with a chain attached the ankle cuffs to the legs of the old rusty metal bed.

"Are you ready for your surprise?" He felt something being laid in his lap and heard something being dropped to the floor. They pulled off his blind fold and he looked down at what it was. Reid's blood soaked shirt. Hotch tried not to react as his eyes shifted to the other item. Reid's cords covered in blood splatter. Now his attention was drawn to the wall opposite him. Large poster sized pictures of Reid being attacked with the cane and pictures of him laying lifeless with what looked like his genius brains spread out behind him. He tried not to look. He tried not to see those open eyes and the ripped bleeding skin.

"Say thank you."

And they cackled. The men started to leave but White mask turned around again and smiled. "Oh one more thing." He placed by the door a small cd player and pressed the repeat button then left.

Filling the room was the sound of Reid's screaming and begging them to stop. Over and over as Hotch sat unable to move with the bloodied clothing on his lap and pictures of the man he loved tortured and dead on the wall in front of him.

The blood from his new head wound mixed with the tears as he closed his eyes and listened to the sound of Reid's last screams.

……………………

"Hey." Morgan was trying to get this person to respond but he seemed to be unconscious or unable to talk. "Where did you get this phone?"

Slowly a hand moved down and pulled the jacket up off the floor. Morgan looked at the hand but his mind refused to see what his eyes where. He knew that hand. He knew that hand well and that hand belonged to a dead guy so what the hell was it doing here attached to someone who was not quite dead yet. Derek moved further into the car and took the jacket. It was Hotchner's. And there it was again. Something familiar about the smell in the back of the car.

"Who the hell are you?" Morgan pulled the blanket right off the stranger and shone the torch onto Flanders bloodied but slowly healing face. "Son of a bitch. What have you done to Hotch?" His mind refused to reconcile the fact that this man should be dead and was in fact cremated a while back. "This can't be who it looks like and who it smells like. It was not possible.

The man in the back of the car moved slowly and sat. He was still having a problem with talking. The inside of his mouth had been blown away and was still mending. He slowly shook his head and pointed to the museum and then started to slide sideways again. Derek slipped into the back of the car with him and stopped him sliding.

"I am not going to begin to understand what crap is going on here but are you telling me that Hotch is in the museum?"

A small nod which made the blood ooze a bit faster from his face.

"Did someone in there do this to you?"

A much smaller nod this time.

"Was Reid there?"

This time Floyd managed to turn his face and look Derek in the eyes. "Help them." A voice no louder than a whisper and he curled up again on the back seat of the car.

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_To __torture__ a man you have to know his pleasures. __Stanislaw Jerzy

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	5. Chapter 5 The Job

The Job

_Ash__: You still don't understand what you're dealing with, do you?_

Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is not mine

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Derek sat in the back of the car with a guy who he knew was dead and had somehow come back to life to get his face shot off. He ran his hands over his head and looked down at Flanders and then out of the window towards the museum.

"Wait here. I will call for back up."

He got a "hhhmmm." As an answer.

Morgan got out of the car and made a call. He needed to take some sort of control here but also called up Rossi and Prentiss. If Hotch was in trouble then they needed to get in there and get him out as soon as possible. Morgan though could see the mess Floyd was in. If the UnSub could do this to Floyd (who is already dead but let's ignore that for now.) what the hell could he do to Morgan?

Derek stood by the car. He wanted to go in the building and check it out, but he also wanted to stay with Flanders. No way was he letting this son of a bitch out of his sight.

It was Rossi and Prentiss who entered the building with SWAT, who saw the mess on the floor near the foyer. It was Rossi and Prentiss who saw the dead curator and who's stomachs twisted unkindly at the thought of what had happened to Hotch, and to a lesser degree for Rossi to Reid. Prentiss followed the blood trail down the stairs. She noted the wavy slightly auburn hair stuck to some of the blood, and she stood and looked at the puddle of blood at the bottom of the stairs.

It seemed likely that Hotchner and Reid had been taken away in vehicles. The crime scene unit would be able to give them the info they needed. For now they had to get out of the way and let forensics do their job.

Prentiss reported back to Morgan that the building was empty apart from a corpse and a nice blood trail.

"Who is that in the back of the car?" She asked peering through the window.

Morgan put his arm around Emily and walked her away. "Nothing to worry about babe. I am going to take him home."

She turned back to the car. "You know him?"

Derek frowned. "Unfortunately, yes. He was a passer by. Didn't see anything. I have….I have his erm…name." He hated to lie to Prentiss and if it had been Hotch or even Rossi he wouldn't have been able to do it but he wanted to keep this Flanders away from the others until he had it figured out in his mind if this was who it seemed to be.

…………………………..

Reid lay in the puddle and shook with the cold and with shock. He still had no idea why he was here and who these people were. He tried again to work out who would know so much about him and why he would be of any use to anyone now. Yes if he was still BAU he could come up with all sorts of scenarios but he was just the authenticator at the local museum. He tried to think of what they could have taken and why and how they would use him. He lay bleeding in the wet from the blood and other bodily fluids and the water he had been hosed with and went over each case person by person trying to match names and voices and professions. When the men in masks turned up he was still barely started.

"Get up off the floor."

Reid slowly pushed his painful body up off the floor and stood facing the UnSubs. He felt exposed and humiliated but refused to show it. He wouldn't let these people think they would be able to break him.

Green mask walked in and held out a couple of items, a Tshirt and a pair of sweat pants. "Get dressed. We have something for you to do."

Spencer slowly pulled the sweat pants on and then tugged the Tshirt over his head. The top was too small and showed his stomach and the bottoms too big which slipped to his hips and threatened to slip to this knees if he wasn't careful.

"Follow me."

Reid didn't move.

Green mask looked back at him

"I said follow me."

Reid stared defiantly ahead. "Tell me why I am here."

"Do you need that cane across your skinny girly ass again? Get out here now."

Spencer moved slowly. He was in agony but didn't want them to see it. They took him down the corridor to a door at the end. Through the door was a small room, brightly lit with a table in the middle. The table had a stand of tiny bottles on it and a bright over head light.

"Sit."

Reid slowly moved around the table and with great effort not to yell out sat on down on his ripped skin.

White mask came over and seemed to be looking at Spencer, but it was hard to tell. "We have a job for you to do. Here is a pile of very valuable papers. I know they are valuable because we took them from the vault you kindly let us in. Over here.." Indicating another pile of papers. "Are the same papers but with the exception they are forgeries. Our problem Dr Reid is that they have become cross contaminated and some of our copies have been accepted as the real thing, and some of the real things are now amongst the copies. You don't need to know how this happened. You just need to know that you are here for the express purpose to sort them out for us."

Reid looked up at them. "You can't make me do this. I won't do this."

"Well I thought you might say that, so I have something which might persuade you a bit." He placed on the table in front of Reid the Polaroids which had been taken. He could see how he had been posed and how this looked very much like he was extremely dead.

"These are fakes. They won't pass a proper inspection." He pushed them away feeling sick with his head pounding. This was a vile trick to play on someone, but who were they going to show them to?

"You are very right, but they won't need to pass a proper inspection Dr Reid. Your little boyfriend has seen them. He has heard you scream. If you want to relieve some of the pain he is feeling you will do as we ask."

…………………………………

Morgan drove back to Reid's apartment. He wanted to get Floyd inside and fixed up so he could ask him some proper questions. He helped him out of the car and pulled an arm over his shoulder to assist his walk to the elevator. Morgan had never seen Floyd in such a weakened state. If this was Floyd. Derek was getting confused. His thoughts becoming foggy. Floyd pressed the code in for the elevator and Morgan pulled the door open. They rattled up to the apartment and entered the main lounge.

"I need you to help me." Floyd pulled away from Morgan and tried to walk towards to bathroom. He slipped and went down to his knees. "Agent Derek Morgan – help me damn you."

Derek was there looking confused again as he breathed in the strong Flanders scent. "I want to know what the hell is going on Flanders."

"I'll tell you if you get me a smoke. Top right drawer in the kitchen and the silver lighter." Flanders crawled forwards a bit still dripping the occasional drop of blood.

Still looking puzzled Morgan went and got what Floyd had asked for. He took the things from Derek and smirked at him. "Run me a shower will you? I need to do this first." He lit up and took a long ragged breath and then blew the smoke in Morgan's face.

"OK man. That was gross, don't do that. I will run the shower."

………………………………….

Aaron sat his eyes glazed over. He had done all the crying he could do and now just sat staring at the last picture of Reid. He tried to make his mind go blank but there all the time he could hear Reid screaming and begging. _'Please stop, please don't, oh god oh god please no._' and more screaming. _'I'm sorry whatever I did I am sorry just stop.' _A long drawn out howl of pain and a sound of a weapon being discharged. Silence. Deadly heart breaking silence.

The guys in the masks entered and turned off the recording but they kindly left the pictures on the wall. They removed Aaron's restraints and gave him a bottle of water. He didn't move, just sat and stared at the wall. Although the recording had stopped Reid's screams were all Aaron could hear.

………………………………….

When Morgan returned from the bathroom he saw Floyd was trying to remove his clothing. "You going to let me help you, or are you going to just attack me for being the wrong colour?"

"Just shut up and help me. I can't help Reid and Hotchner if I don't get better. I need to be wet. Help me."

Morgan undid the buttons on Floyds shirt and flinched at the sight under the ripped cloth. Then carefully – more carefully than he thought possible unbuttoned Floyd's jeans. He pulled them off him and just stood looking down at him.

"Hell man." Was all he said but he put a hand out to him. Get up and I will help you shower. More noxious smoke in his face. "Do you have to do that?"

A small nod and Floyd was pulling himself up off the floor using Derek's hand. He didn't flinch from it. He didn't look or snarl at it. He allowed Derek to help him to the bathroom.

"I hate to ask you this Morgan. Will you help me stand in there? I don't think I can stand unaided."

Morgan could smell the heavy musty smell of Flanders and gave a quick nod. He kicked off his boots and he pulled off his tight fitting Tshirt and his combat trousers. He then stood in front of Floyd and allowed him to put arms over his shoulders as the entered under the hot water.

Derek was feeling odd. His mind was foggy and not reacting as he thought it should. He could feel hands moving down and around to hold him around his chest. He could hear Floyd's moan of pain and feel his body jerking as the water hit. Strangely he could also feel hands moving slowly over his chest and hot breath on the back of his neck and though the water was hot and steamy he could still smell that unmistakable smell.

What he couldn't see was the grin on Floyds face. The big happy tooth filled grin which he reserved only for very special occasions and getting in the shower with Derek Morgan was definitely time to toast a victory. Obviously it wouldn't go further than this. The man was unsavoury. But to get him on side now would be child's play.

"How are you feeling man?" Derek.

"Feeling good." Floyd.

* * *

_Parker__: It's got a wonderful defence mechanism. You don't dare kill it.

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	6. Chapter 6 The Derek Affair

The Derek Affair.

_Anthony Hope__:- I think there's been some mistake._

Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is not mine.

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Reid sat and looked at the pile of papers. "I won't do it."

A nod from White mask and one of the men left the room. Spencer just sat looking down at his hands. He could feel blood soaking into the back of his Tshirt where the skin had split open again. He needed Aaron. He needed that comfort and for someone to make this feel better.

The door opened and the man had returned with a pair of bolt croppers. Reid tried to ignore it but the fear of what they were going to do made him start to shake. He kept his hands down on his lap until one of them was pulled up and placed on the table.

"You can choose. Which one would Hotchner want as a gift?"

Reid tried to snatch his hand away but it was held firmly. His little finger placed between the blades. He tried to put his fingers into a fist to stop what he knew was going to be painful and permanent. The blade pressed down slowly so Spencer could see the blood start to flow where the blades sliced his flesh.

"Stop!" White mask commanded. "I have a far better way to get him to do what we ask. Take this to Hotchner. See how many digits before Reid here decides to do what we ask."

………………..

The door swung open and they walked in. A small table was put against the wall and a lap top placed upon it. One man put the restraints back on Aaron's wrists another set up the lap top.

……………….

A lap top was placed on the table in front of Reid. It was set up and turned on. "We have something to show you. Just wait a while – they are setting up the other end. Spencer sat and stared at the screen.

……………..

Aaron felt empty. He knew that Spencer would want him to fight these people and not to let them get to him like this. For Spencer he had to keep fighting. He couldn't let his death be for nothing.

"What do you want with me? What did you want with Reid?"

"Cant remember giving you permission to talk."

"If you tell me what you want I can contact my team members and we can try to sort things out. Is a ransom? A political statement? I am sure we can work around this. I haven't seen your faces – I cannot identify you. There is no need to keep me."

"Shut up Hotchner." A snarl of a voice. "Stand up."

Aaron stood and looked at the aggressor in the face. At his mask. This was another way to intimidate. He was not going to let it work.

The first was a fist to the mouth. Aaron took a step back to try to ride it but was only half successful. There was no point in trying to fight them physically as there were too many of them. They would get bored soon if he just let them hit him for a while. He could take it. Hands in on his collar pulling him close and a head butt to the nose. He could feel the blood beginning to flow but still he stood head up taking all they were giving him. Hotch spat blood out onto the floor as again he was grabbed by the collar. Knowing another head butt was coming he readied himself to ride it a bit better, therefore the knee to the groin was unexpected. He let out an unwilling groan of pain and as the agony shot through his body and he bent forwards to in an attempt to relieve the pain the same knee came up and hit his face.

This time Aaron fell back and was laying on his side on the cold floor. He watched through unfocused eyes as a foot came back and suddenly stopped. They left Aaron curled up on the floor and left taking the lap top and table with them. A bottle of water left in its place.

…………………….

Spencer didn't want to give these people what they wanted but he couldn't sit here in comfort (relative) and see Hotch get beaten for something he was refusing to do.

"OK – stop stop I will do what you want. Just stop." Tears welling up behind his eyes. The very last thing he wanted to show these people was how much emotional attachment he had for Aaron, but he had a funny feeling they already knew.

They slammed the lap top closed and indicated the papers. "Get to work freak."

He had to think fast. He could just do as they asked. It was only money after all, but it was the principle and once he had finished he very much doubted they would let him go. The masks – he had decided were not for disguise but purely for intimidation.

"I can't do this yet. I need my glasses. You broke my others. I need my spares from my apartment - kitchen drawer."

White mask stood and looked at him for a while. "Take him back to his room. You don't need to be too gentle. One finger his brain and his eyes. That's all he needs. The rest you can have fun with. I hear he is the passive one." He looked over at Blue mask "Enjoy."

………………….

Morgan wasn't quite sure what had happened but after drying Floyd down for him and standing allowing Floyd to dry him he got dressed and stood again in a cloud of smoke.

"I erm need to go and sort things at the museum. You – you rest." A puzzled look on his face. "You still don't look good." Floyd put a finger on Derek's lips. Nothing compared to Spencer's. Spencer had the best mouth known to humankind not to mention his mouth was just not desirable. Then again sod that who gives a damn if it is or not. 'Tis a mouth and one he can employ to his own good use.

Morgan coughed as more smoke drifted across his face and the smell from Floyd seemed to intensify. In a half daze he felt hands on the back of his head and lips on his. He knew he should be pulling away repulsed by this man. The most reviled person he had ever known. A man who should be dead many times over, but he felt he was responding and his mouth was grinding against that of Flanders.

Floyd finally after feeling that Morgan wanted him probably as much as he didn't want Morgan, pushed him away. "You need to go find Spence and Aaron."

Morgan looked at Floyd trying to work out just what it was that just happened. He scratched at his neck and shook his head. "Yes – I need to go."

Flanders watched Morgan leave via the elevator and then slumped to his knees. His head was swimming and thumping with such a headache he could hardly think, but considering he was still recovering from having his brain blasted he was not doing too badly. He wanted to curl up again somewhere very dark and heal. He was still trying to mend from slitting his own throat- that had set him back further than he thought it would. This recent incident was the worst for a long time and his fear now was the return of the headaches and more or worse nose bleeds. He needed to go get supplies, but right now he couldn't even stand.

Slowly he crawled to the bedroom and curled up in the corner between the wardrobe and the edge of the wall. Here he would be fine. For a few hours. Then he would try again. He slowed down his body almost to a complete halt and with his arms wrapped around his head he began to heal.

…………………….

They took their time with Spencer. They had lots of fun. They took it in turns to make him scream and they laughed as they slowly peeled away his protective layers and got down to the real Dr Spencer Reid. The stuttering one. The one who needed to be loved and accepted. The insecure Dr Spencer Reid.

When he thought they couldn't do anything more to him they held him down and used the cane across his abdomen.

As Spencer felt the blood flowing again and he had lost the strength to cry out they held his foot and slapped the cane across the bottom of his feet – and it was now that he felt that extra tiny bit of strength to scream.

………………………

As Floyd hibernated in his closed off state the fire door of the apartment was forced open. Three men entered Reid and Floyd's apartment and they started to go through the drawers in the kitchen. One of them walked into the bedroom to search the bedside table. It was then that he saw in the reflection of the full length mirror something curled up in the corner.

"Guys. You really want to see this."

The others walked in and looked down. "I shot that son of a bitch in the head. I pulled the trigger. I saw his brains. How the hell is he here?"

One of them walked slowly over to him. "It can't be the same person. Flanders is dead. They had a funeral. He was cremated. This has to be someone else."

"Two someone elses? This is creepy man, let's go." He started to back out of the room.

"We need the freaks glasses. You carry on looking, he said in the drawer in the kitchen. I am going to see exactly who this is."

They grabbed Floyd by the arms and pulled him out of his dark corner.

"I've got the glasses!" A call from the kitchen.

The guy looked down at the unmoving form. He couldn't see the chest rising and falling so he felt for a pulse. "He's dead." A puzzled look on his face. "Yet again." Then he let out a howl of horror as Flanders hand reached out and grabbed at his ankle and his eyes opened.

They didn't wait. The guys left the apartment at breakneck speed and back to the car waiting for them.

"What the hell?!" One of them was shouting over and over.

…………………..

Floyd lay on his back on the bedroom floor. "Sons of bitches whore dogs. You woke me up you bastards." And he crawled slowly back to the shadows.

…………………..

Aaron lay on the cold floor. The blood had dried around his mouth and nose but he had the horrible taste in his mouth still. He reached over and picked up the bottle of water. He needed to try to keep his strength up. He pushed up to sit. Pain shooting through his body made him feel sick. He unscrewed the lid of the bottle and it made a satisfying hiss as the seal was broken. He then sat drinking his water looking up at the pictures of Spencer. Trying to embed into his mind the feel of his skin and the smell of his hair. He needed to hear his voice again and smile when the heard that giggle. He looked into those hazel eyes staring sightlessly back at him. He needed to cry. He wanted to release all these emotions but he was the strong one. The leader. The one they all looked to for strength and they weren't going to break him.

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_Sweeney Todd__: -And life is for the alive, my dear - So let's keep living it.

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	7. Chapter 7 Stalking

Stalking

_All great lovers are articulate, and verbal __seduction__ is the surest road to actual __seduction__: - Marya Mannes_

Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is not mine.

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He lay there and before he could close down again fully he opened his mind a crack. The very smallest of peeks, just to see if Spence was alright. He received a howling scream in return.

"Spence." He daren't do more than that tiny peek. He knew though that he had to get to him. Crawling he made his way to the lounge and espied the broken fire door. He inhaled deeply and picked up the scent of the intruders. "You will rue the day you crossed me and my passions." He managed to claw his way to his supply and stuffed his pockets with smokes and twists of cellophane. "No one – and I mean no one does this to me and gets away with it."

Floyd made one more shuddering move forwards and collapsed on the floor. Pulling his cell from his pocket he looked at it with a gleam in his eye and dialled a number from memory.

………………..

The BAU were awaiting some kind of demand from someone about the kidnapping of Hotch and Reid. The museum were compiling a list of the things taken, but most of it seemed completely random and some of the things he been destroyed.

Derek sat and looked at the list. He had been looking at it for quite a while without any of the words even beginning to register. He still felt like a fog had clouded his mind. What had happened with Floyd? Why had that happened? And what the hell did Floyd want with him? They had hated each other from the day they set eyes on each other. Today just shouldn't have happened. It was so wrong in so many ways and now he had this distinct urge to return to the apartment and maybe finish that which they had started. A shudder ran up his spine. What in hells name was he thinking of?!

"Morgan." Rossi was standing looking at him with a curious look on his face. "Anything wrong?"

Derek looked up. He could feel his cheeks getting hot. Fortunately he didn't show the blush he knew if he had been Reid he would be showing. "I am just having a problem concentrating."

A nod. "It's not easy when comrades are involved in a case. There is no shame is stepping back. Someone can be brought in to go through this stuff."

"No, no it's fine. I just keep thinking – you know – the person best suited to this job the BAU kicked out." Derek looked back down at the list. It still just looked like a jumble of words.

Rossi just nodded and walked away.

Morgan jumped slightly when his phone started to ring.

"Morgan." A long pause. "How long ago?" Frowning. "How the hell am I going to explain you?" Looking to see who was listening. "Well it's not that easy just to leave." Looking at his watch. "OK I will be there." He flipped his phone shut and sat thinking. Why on earth would Floyd be calling him for help?

'_Something was going on. Something was wrong. Floyd was meant to be dead for a start – keep that in mind. Don't be pulled into this mess.'_

…………………..

Reid was laying shaking on the floor. There probably wasn't one part of his body now except his hands which wasn't screaming at him. He barely heard the door open and the voices seemed so far away.

"I said get your ass up off the floor."

Reid turned his head to look at his captor and moved onto his front. He put shaking hands out in front of him, his hair hung down in sweaty dirty clumps.

"Get up." The voice was sounding annoyed.

"I I c c cant." Not a lot more than a low whisper. Apologetic.

The boot which belonged to the feet now appeared in front of Reid. "Why the hell not. Get to your feet." A hissing spiteful voice.

Spencer knew that the pain would be unbearable but again he refused to let these people how far they had breached his protective wall. Slowly he put on foot on the floor and tried to push up on it. All he managed was a pathetic whimper and he was back down again to his knees.

"Drag him. I have work for him to do. I didn't go to all this trouble so he can lay there and feel sorry for himself." He stood back whilst two of the UnSubs took Reid by the feet. "One second." He moved forwards and produced a knife. "A gift for your lover I think. Something for him to hold." And a giggle. He sliced a length of Reid's long wavy hair off and then sliced him across the back of the knees. He dipped the hair in the blood and stepped back again. "Take him back to the office and introduce him to his glasses please." I have a gift to deliver.

There was no point in resisting being dragged. All he could do was try to keep his head up off the floor so that they wouldn't crack his head on any steps there might be. He tried to calculate how long it had taken them to go to his apartment and get his glasses and if they had been there where the hell was Floyd?

………………………

Aaron was sitting on the floor with his back against the bed staring at the pictures on the wall and muttering to himself. He like Reid was going over past cases to try to figure out if he had met these people before and what they wanted with him. He stared up at Reid's eyes and looked at his hands laying on the floor next to his face. Such long fingers – such a beautiful face. Where was he now? What had they done with him?

White mask opened the door and entered with two others.

"How are you doing Hotchner?" He looked from Aaron to the pictures on the wall. "I think you have had those there for long enough. Boys remove the art work." The other two walked over to the walls and started to tear them down.

Aaron wanted to scream and leap up and stop them, but again he remained impassive and in control. As much as a man holding the bloodied clothes of his dead loved one could be in control.

White mask looked down at him. Hotch couldn't see but he had a feeling that this man was smiling at him. "How are you feeling Hotchner?" Hotch just stared at him. His expression giving nothing away. "I have a gift for you. A last bit of something. I got it especially for you." He dropped the bloodied length of hair on top of the shirt Aaron was clutching.

He knew that hair. There was no mistaking the colour or the way it curled. There was also no mistaking the blood.

At last Hotch was forced to end his silence. "What have you done with him?"

A big broad grin. "That's why I got you this hair Hotchner. We incinerated him. POOF! He is but a pile of dirty perverted freak ashes. You want them too? I can see if I can arrange it."

No reaction from Aaron. If he had tried to say something it would have come out as a howl of pain and he refused to let them see how close they were to the point of no return.

After they closed the door he put the hair up to his face and sobbed. He could smell Spencer's special sweet smell and the coppery smell of his blood. How nice it would be to close his eyes now and let go, but he couldn't. He had to stay in control and he refused to let even this to break him.

…………………….

The shadow crawled. It stopped to smell the air and then crawled some more. The only way he could deal with this was to stay with the shadows and let them guide him. He could feel the vibrations on the ground and smell the blood in the air.

"What the hell are you doing?" Morgan sounded irritated.

"Tracking. Stalking. Finding. Stay with me in silence Agent Derek Morgan, or find your own way. I care not what you do my friend as long as you do not stop me from doing that which I must."

Morgan nodded at the shadows and carried on walking slowly down the side of the street almost engulfed in the darkness.

………………………

Reid was thrown onto the chair and a pile of the papers was put in front of him. His glasses stood on the top. With trembling hands he picked them up and slipped them on.

"Wh wh what d d do you – what do you w want me to do?"

A hard slap around the face. "Sort them you stupid bastard. Fakes- originals." Spencer's face was stinging.

"How am I meant to tell?" He was looking down that the first one and saw out of the corner of his eye some bottles being pushed towards him.

"You know how. Stop playing games with me Dr Reid or I will start to hurt your friend again.

Reid closed his eyes. It was after all just money, and he couldn't risk his life over it – or the life of Aaron and as he sat thinking about it he felt his chair being swung around to face White mask and then the fist on the side of his head.

"You remember how yet?"

He wanted to answer but now his head was spinning.

Another punch, to the other side of the head. The force unbalanced Spencer as he slipped sideways off the chair and onto the floor.

"Have you remembered!" Bellowing – and now a kick to the stomach.

"Well? Have you?"

A small almost unheard. "Yes."

* * *

_In the name of Hypocrites, doctors have invented the most exquisite form of __torture__ ever known to man: survival__: - __Edward Everett Hale.

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	8. Chapter 8 The Other Man's Pain

The Other Man's Pain.

_Lead Cenobite__: -No tears, please. It's a waste of good suffering_

Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is not mine.

* * *

He was pulled back onto the chair, his eyes stinging his body bruised and cut. He pulled the first page over and ran his fingers down the lines of words and then pulled copy over and did the same. He frowned and put one to the side and one at the bottom of the pile.

He looked up at the men watching him. "It had a s spelling m mistake. It's fake." He reached over for the next two examples and again ran his finger down one copy and then the next. He frowned and picked one of them up and held it up to the light. He did the same thing with the other and put one to the side and the other to the bottom of the pile. "The ink d dries a different c colour sometimes."

White mask watched Reid do a similar thing to a few more sheets before getting up and leaving the room. Spencer looked over to the door closing and picked up the next two copies.

When he returned with a lap top in his hand Spencer's stomach knotted. White mask placed it in front of Spencer and smiled. "Carry on the way you are Reid. Don't mind me."

……………………..

Blue mask and 3 others entered Aaron's cell. He had dragged himself onto the bed and was laying on his side holding the hair and the shirt close to him. He was using the blood splattered trousers to rest his head on.

"Get up." Blue mask ordered.

Carefully Aaron put his treasures down and stood. He held his head up and looked straight at the UnSub in the mask. He could see behind Blue they were setting up the lap top again.

…………………….

Reid was holding a document in his shaking hands when the lap top sprang into action and showed him what was happening to Aaron. He was standing there letting them do it to him, his eyes fixed forward occasionally a flicker of something akin to hatred could be seen in his eyes or a frown appeared for a fleeting second. In the first instance Spencer couldn't work out what they were doing. The angle of the camera was slightly off, but as they turned Aaron side on Reid could see they had partially stripped him and where now pushing him down onto his hands and knees.

"What! What are – why? What d did I d do? Stop s s s stop it!" Spencer tried to get to his feet but the sudden pain made his cry out and sit back down onto his own ripped skin. "S s stop!"

White mask said something quietly into a mic he had attached to his collar and the monitor went blank.

"Dr Reid, you are being very silly. Do you know how much pain and humiliation we can inflict on your big tough friend before he actually dies? I am sure you can figure out the statistics for that can't you?"

"W what did I d do wrong?" Reid was still staring at the blank screen.

White mask walked over and picked up the last two documents and placed them back in front of Reid. "You did this wrong my little genius. Don't mess me around."

Reid dragged his eyes away from the monitor and looked down at the papers. He blinked and nodded slowly.

"You see Dr Spencer Reid, amongst these documents are doubles. Some double fakes, and some which I personally know which is which and obviously some I don't. These two as you know Dr Reid are both fake."

Another small nod.

"Next time your protests of stop will go on deaf ears and he will get the full treatment. Think on that Dr Reid." He turned to his men again. "Return him to his cell and give him the treatment he just halted. Record it. I will watch it at my leisure later."

Reid's big eyes looked from one masked face to the next and then back to White. "Please don't. I will do this for you, please……"

They took Spencer by his arms and pulled him from the chair. As they dragged him from the room White said something else. "Remember we need his eyes and his brain, and probably wise to leave his right hand alone. They rest of the freak is yours."

Reid wanted to resist and try to get to his knees as he was being dragged face down but the pain was too much and all he managed again was a pathetic whimper.

………………………

Again the abuse suddenly stopped. The let Aaron go and picking up their things left the room. A bowl of something grey and a bottle of water was left. Slowly he pulled up his clothing and sat looking at the food and water. He was terribly thirsty but hunger? He didn't think he would ever feel hungry again.

He tried to work out what they were doing. They would enter his room with the full intent to do something yet leave before it happened, or at least before it got extreme. He looked again at the bloodied clothing and the hair and crawled back to the bed and sat. He picked up the hair and gently began to wipe out the now dried blood and something in the back of his mind was shouting out to him, but it was too foggy and confused to work out what it was trying to tell him, so he sat and breathed big shuddering breaths trying to remove the images of the murdered Reid from his mind and replace them with happy ones and all he could see were the times he had put Reid into danger. The time they failed to rescue Reid before he had to kill a man. The time he had left it to Reid to kill someone to save the people in the hospital. The time had been sent onto that train to trick a mad man. All those times going over and over in his mind and the knot in his stomach became so tight it made his eyes water.

…………………….

They whipped Reid with the cane again. It was their second favourite game. They loved to watch him scream and try to crawl away. They loved the way he begged them to stop. It excited them as he lay trying to protect his skinny body from the pain they were inflicting. They loved the way his blood soaked through the Tshirt and dried onto his skin and they loved the way his toes curled up as he screamed. It gave them great pleasure to see his eyes pleading with them to stop as they dragged him off the floor and held hard hands around his throat stopping the air getting to his lungs and they also whooped with joy when they threw him against the wall and his head cracked leaving a lovely smear and the sound of the air being forced from his body was the last straw. Now they took him. One at a time.

…………………….

Morgan stood next to the thing curled up on the floor.

"You going to do anything or just sit in the gutter." A prod with his foot.

The thing moved slightly. "Don't touch me. I am – I am so tired. Leave me be." A deep raspy voice.

Derek Morgan crouched down next to it and got a huge waft of the Floyd smell he was getting used to. "We are meant to be finding Hotch and Reid." A careful hand reaching out.

"I need to rest. Agent Derek Morgan. I need to ……." And the voice drifted off.

"Damn you Flanders you seemed fine in the shower – get up and find them!" Derek stood up again and ran hands over his head in frustration. Why was he here with this 'thing' trying to sniff out his boss? What the hell was he thinking of? He bent down and grabbed Flanders by what he assumed was the back of his collar and dragged him up off the floor. They only response he got back was a growling moan. "Move it Flanders I need to find them."

Very slowly Floyd turned to face Morgan. "I need to rest. I am still healing. I cant do this." And he folded himself down again and almost disappeared into the shadows. "let me concentrate Agent Derek Morgan. Let me try to work out how far away they are. Stay. Wait with me." His voice getting quieter and quieter until it was no more than words coming with his unsteady breathing.

……………………………..

They left Reid laying on his back. He had bruised coming up around his neck. There was a small trickle of blood crawling from the corner of his mouth and the skin on his chest and legs was split from the cane. He lay and shook and thought – _'Please somebody find us.' _And then he did something he had resisted doing for a long time and cranked his mind open fully and screamed.

_FLOYD WHERE ARE YOU?!_

And somewhere out in the shadows in the dark streets a man stood over a huddled form and listened to it howling in pain.

* * *

_Old Monty__: You little turd, you're so dead, you don't even know it.

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_


	9. Chapter 9 Fingers and Teeth

Fingers and Teeth

_Run your __fingers__ through my soul. For once, just once, feel exactly what I feel, believe what I believe, perceive as I perceive, look, experience, examine, and for once; just once, understand__:- unknown_

Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is not mine.

* * *

Morgan crouched down again. "What? What's happened?" The screaming had stopped now but there was a regular 'splat' sound as something hit the sidewalk.

"N n nosebleed." A hand came out of the darkness and moved towards Derek. It was holding a cheroot and silver lighter. "Light it for me."

"You need to get up and find Hotch and Reid, not lay there smoking." He took it anyway and with a repulsed look on his face put the cheroot between his lips.

"D don't inhale."

Morgan looked down at Floyd. Something had gone wrong with him. Derek had never seen Floyd in such a state before. To show this weakness in front of him must mean he is worried. "I had no intention of inhaling this shit." He handed it back to Flanders who took it back into the shadows with him.

"Just wait with me. I am going to work out where he is."

…………………….

Aaron sat on the bed holding the length of hair. There was something wrong. Something very wrong about this whole situation and it revolved around this hair. He stroked it and looked at it picking out the bits of blood. This was definitely Reid's hair. He could tell by the texture and the colour, the way when he held it up to the light it had a golden glow, so what was it that was bothering him so much about it. Aaron closed his eyes and forced himself to remember the pictures they had put on the wall. Was there something wrong with those too? He didn't think so. Just this hair – Something wrong about the hair.

When he heard the door opening he put the lock of hair safely under the bloodstained trousers. He frowned at them then stood and turned to the door. Two of the UnSubs stood there with a hose in their hands. Hotch quickly moved away from the bed and over to the corner of the room. If they were going to soak him he at least wanted to keep his treasures dry. He could hear laughter as they turned on the hose and gave him a soaking. In a strange way it felt good. It was refreshing and something about the water made his mind go back to the lock of hair under the cords. As suddenly as they had arrived they left again.

Hotch stood shivering in the corner trying to get his brain into gear again. This was some sort of intimidation. Something was so wrong here, he just needed to work out what it was. Again his eyes were drawn back to the cords and next to them the blood soaked shirt and then thoughts drifted to the lock of hair.

Slowly Aaron walked over to the items and laid them out on the bed and there it was, well at least one of the things. He stood looking at it for a while and turned the clothes over and looked at the back. He frowned and picked up the lock of hair and stroked it with his fingers. Carefully he folded the things back up again and put the hair under the pillow he made of the cords and whispered to himself. "He's not dead."

……………………….

Reid had been pulled back to his place at the table.

"Are you ready to do what you are here for?"

A shuddering breath and a small nod.

"You are going to stop playing your silly games? You know next time Hotchner will get the treatment you have been getting. He has been lucky so far that his pretty little friend has been willing to take the flak for him. Next time he won't be so lucky."

Another small nod.

Reid picked up a manuscript and ran a shaking finger down it. He then picked up its twin and did the same. Reid looked up at White mask but not being able to see the faces prevented him from seeing if there was a reaction to what he was doing.

"I n need to t test the ink." He pulled over the bottles and a small knife. He knew as he picked up the blade that his hands were shaking too much to use it. Again he looked up at the mask as he put the blade down and pushed it away from him. He put the papers together and moved them to one side. "L l later, I w will check them l l later."

He then took the next two. Again he held them both to the light and ran his fingers over the print and put one to one side the other at the front of the desk. This routine carried on for hours. Checking one after the other, sometimes having to go back and double check again and some he just didn't know and would have to take ink samples.

………………

Aaron curled up on the bed and wondered how to go about this. If he told them his suspicions how would it effect Reid, and why do they want him to think he is dead. He was baffled by the reasoning of these men. Was it just to see how long it would be before they could break him, or was there something else here too?

He could still faintly smell Spencer on the clothing and his heart thumped hard in his chest as he thought of the pictures they had shown him. How much of it was real? How much had they damaged Spencer and why?

……………….

White mask was happy. The whole thing was coming together nicely. He was slowly breaking that bastard Hotchner and at the same time getting some work done. Obviously the torture of that freak and pervert Reid was such a bonus and it kept the boys amused. Yes White mask was happy.

………………..

Hotch was still wet and cold when the door opened again. White mask stood there with a small box in his hand.

"I thought I would give you this as you two were so close I figured you would want him back again."

Aaron got to his feet and stared at the man. "I am not going to play your game anymore. Tell me why I am here."

"You think this is a game? You think I would go to all of this trouble to play games with you Hotchner?" He took a step towards Aaron. "How much do you want to chance that this is a game and I don't mean what I say?"

Hotch stood looking at the box. He knew that the blood splatter and the blood on the shirt had been put there, that they hadn't got bloodied like that the way they wanted him to think, but how sure was he that they hadn't killed Spencer. The more he looked at White mask the more he doubted what he had thought.

"After you incinerate someone you have to remove bits of metal, you know like the bits Reid had in his leg, and you need to grind up the bones properly to make a powder. I am afraid that the grinder we have available is not first class, but it serves its purpose."

And now Aaron found out why they had gone to the trouble of getting him wet as White mask threw the contents of the box over the damp shivering Hotch.

Ash glued itself to his hair and fell on his face. It got breathed up his nose and entered his mouth and got in his eyes. It was stuck to his damp and bloodied shirt and as he moved back in shock and tried to get the ash off his face it got caught behind his fingernails and dropped down between his cold white flesh and his shirt. He sneezed and coughed and his eyes watered as he looked down and saw a sprinkling of bits of bone. Aaron could hold it back no more. He turned and vomited onto the floor, his head confused. This can't be Spencer. It can't be. He must still be alive. They wouldn't do this!

And White mask was laughing at the look on Aaron's face. "You enjoyed that? You will have bits of your agent stuck to you for long time Hotchner, unless you wash him away down the sink in to the sewers where people like him belong."

Hotch turned white faced to the man in the mask. "I don't believe this is Reid."

"Fine don't believe me. Wonder in its stead what I am really doing to your little chum. Whichever eases your mind the most. Maybe a collection of some of his teeth will assist in your understanding of the situation. I will see you later Hotchner. Sleep well."

The masked man walked out of the room and slammed the door. Aaron heard the lock being turned and heard the foot steps as he walked away.

"This isn't you Spence. Please don't let this be you." Hotch looked down at the pale powder covering his hands.

…………………….

The cloud of smoke slowly dissipated and the form on the floor move and carefully stood. "North. It's to the north." And with one hand on the wall of the shop front Floyd started to walk forwards.

"Wait up man, how far north. I can get the car." Morgan walked next to Flanders who was keeping his head down and his face covered by his lank dirty hair.

"I can't track from a car you stupid sod." A pause. "A few miles, not far."

"I will call back up." Derek started to pull the phone from his pocket but he felt a hand on his arm. "How will you explain the dead man walking?"

Derek could feel Floyd's hand trembling. "We have no idea how many there are of them. We can't go alone. I will think of something."

"Don't worry. By the time we get there I will be fine. I hope. I just need a snack." He looked up at Morgan and frowned and then grinned.

Morgan watched as Floyd pulled something out of his pocket and slipped it into his mouth. _'This will do for now and he had others tucked away in his pocket. Gotta love finger food.' _He held onto Morgan's arm and started walking slowly forwards.

…………………………

Reid was laying on his side rocking and moaning softly to himself when the door was opened again. He didn't know how long since he had last slept. Absence of any natural light or any clocks of watches was another way to keep him disoriented. He looked up at his captors with blurred vision. His glasses they removed and kept for him back with the papers. They didn't want to risk them getting broken too.

"Get him on the floor and hold him down."

They cuffed his hands behind his back and dragged him to the middle of the floor. He was thrown down onto his back. One UnSub stood behind him then moved forwards slightly standing one foot either side of his head. He stood hard down on Reid's hair to stop him moving his head side to side. Two held onto his ankles and the last one straddled his chest.

"Open your mouth."

Reid just stared up at the mask.

"Make it easy on yourself just for once."

"No." Soft yet defiant.

The mask let out a sigh. "Well all the more fun for me then I suppose."

Reid watched hands coming down from the guy standing on his hair. Hard experienced fingers pressed into the side of Reid's jaw forcing it open a small way. But that was all that was needed. Spencer felt something hard and cold being pushed between his teeth and then felt as the object was slowly cranked open forcing his mouth open.

The fear of what they intended doing to him made him want to scream. When he saw the pliers in the UnSub's hand he panicked. He tried to pull away, he tried to kick, he tried to scream and he did scream. He felt the pliers gripping one of his back teeth and he felt the twisting agony as one of his teeth was ripped from his mouth. When they did the same to the other side of his mouth he was unable to take more pain and he slipped into that lovely place called oblivion.

* * *

_Some tortures are physical  
And some are mental,  
But the one that is both  
Is dental.  
- Ogden Nash

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_


	10. Chapter 10 Stolen Treasures

Stolen Treasures

_  
__Ichabod Crane__ once said__:- That's the problem. He was dead to begin with._

Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is not mine.

* * *

Reid lay on his back still held down by the masked Unsubs and in his dark hiding place in his mind refused to acknowledge what they were doing to him. His mind continued to try to work out who these people were. Fixed on the voice of White and trying to ignore the hands of the others as his mouth welled up with blood where they had ripped open his gums. He spat out blood and closed his eyes. They weren't going to win. They might think they would but Reid knew his will was stronger than anything they could throw at him and in the back of his mind was that long howling scream of pain.

When they finally left him alone he adjusted his clothing and crawled to the mattress. His mind still throwing out ideas and deleting them as soon as he thought. What were they doing with Hotch? Why do this to him if they needed him to authenticate the papers? He didn't understand. There seemed to be no logic in it.

Spencer wanted to call out to Floyd but he knew all he could do was scream now and so he kept silent and lay on the mattress staring at the bloodstains on the wall and wondering what everyone else was doing.

…………………….

Hotch was still standing looking at his hands when the door opened again. His eyes were watering from the ash, and his mouth was dry. He didn't know what to do. The fear that this might be Reid had over ridden his logic. Hotch watched them as the walked over to the bed and picked up the clothing. Aaron shot into action. With a howl of anger he was there trying to take the things back off them. An elbow to his face and a punch in the solar plexus had him breathless and unable to move as the men in masks removed the items he had used to ground himself. He watched as they threw the blooded clothing into a bin bag and walk out again leaving him alone. Alone covered in something which may or may not have been Reid.

He sat on the bed and tried to pull his mind back to how it should be. This ash. The pictures – the blood splatter which looked wrong. Everything added up to the same thing. Reid was alive. He just needed now to work out how he came by that equation.

………………………..

Floyd was walking without needing to hold on now. Morgan at first was confused at the way he kept crouching down but now he seemed to be accepting that this was Floyd's way of tracking. How he did it he didn't know, and didn't really care too much now so long as Floyd go them to where they were meant to be going.

He watched Floyd spit something out into his hand and put it in his pocket and then pull something from another pocket and slip it into his mouth. He turned to Morgan. "They are hurting. There is so much pain going on. We need to hurry. My stomach is beginning to feel the need to be filled."

"Hurry to where man? Where are we going?"

Floyd turned to Morgan again. "I told you. North. We need to go north and we need to go underground and it needs to be somewhere old." He turned again and started to walk a bit faster. "I will know when we get closer!" he called back.

………………………

As Reid's body finally gave up trying to stay awake and his eyes closed to cut out the pattern on the wall his door opened again. His eyes swollen by lack of sleep and his face swollen by the ripping out of his two of his back teeth he looked over at them and blinked.

"Get up and come with us. You have more work to do."

No point in protesting.

No point in trying to resist.

He crawled from the damp mattress and looked up at the men. "I c c cant th th th tand." His stutter made worse now by the fact he couldn't manipulate his tongue in his swollen mouth properly.

Spencer got a quick response to his words though as they grabbed his arms and dragged him from the room. He let out little moans and whimpers as they dragged him back into the room with the papers. This time the desk had been cleared. A contraption had been attached to the table top. A board with leather straps on it. First one of Reid's wrist and then the other was placed on the board and the leather straps bound tightly around them. Spencer was so tired he could hardly think. He wouldn't be resisting or escaping any time soon. His head started to slump forwards as the sleep over took him again, only to have his head pulled up again to see in front of him the lap top. The screen was blank but the camera light was blinking. Spencer looked up at the camera light and wondered if this new show was for Aaron.

White mask was there looking in Reid's direction. "Right Dr Spencer Reid we are going to play a little game with you now. It's kind of like – you know – who loves who the more. This is a game we usually play on husband and wife, and really it would have been best to play it on you and Flanders, but due to the fact he is dead, well we can't can we? The next best thing is this, and the joy of it! Two birds with one stone, well really three as I got you to go through those papers for me." and Reid's eyes were closing again as White talked to him and in that flash – that tiny second of sleep it came to him.

He stared up at White as they held his left hand in place. "I I know – I know who you are."

Reid tried to block out what they were going to do to his hand. He ignored the wedge of wood being placed just behind his thumb nail.

"You think you now who I am? Enlighten me."

"Agent Shelling – Fraud." Obviously there was no reaction on the face of the man but Reid was unable to do anything but scream as the wedge was hammered home behind his thumb nail. "You w w wont g get away w w with this!" Reid screamed his words out as they now pulled the small wooden wedge forwards ripping the nail from the flesh and a howl of the words "No please no no.!"

"I think I just did." He picked up the bloodied bit of nail and placed it in an envelope. "Keep that one awake." And as the door closed and the remaining masked men walked towards Reid with hammers and nails and pliers they held his head and threw water on him. They pulled his chair out from under him so he was leaning across the table still unable to put his feet on the floor and they smashed the hammer down on his toes.

"This should keep him awake for a while!"

………………………………

Floyd was back on all fours and sniffing the air. "Take some steps back from me Agent Derek Morgan. Your smell is wonderfully distracting."

Derek frowned at Floyd who seemed be acting more like his normal self now and stepped back a bit. "What's wrong? Flanders – what is it?"

Floyd stood and started to jog. "Over here, we are close."

"Flanders wait. Just hold up one second." He started to run to catch up. "We can't just to barging in. Wait."

Floyd turned to Morgan. "You don't have to come with me, but they are going to kill them Morgan. They will kill them if we don't move now." He went to run again but Derek grabbed his arm.

"I said wait. We will get back up."

"Get your hands off me. I am going in if you like it or not Agent Derek sodding Morgan!"

This was more like the old Floyd Derek hated. This felt better. Together they made their way across the old warehouse district.

…………………….

Hotch looked over at them as they walked into the room with a CD player and an envelope.

White set up a table and placed the lap top on it. Aaron looked over at it feigning disinterest but looking to see if the camera was active. It wasn't. So they weren't showing this to someone else. This was maybe more worrying. Did this mean that whoever had been seeing it before couldn't now?

"In stages Hotchner. We are going to do this in stages. Stage one. The tooth." He walked over and placed a bloodied tooth in Aaron's still dusty hand.

Hotch just looked down at it briefly then back up at the mask. "This proves nothing. It means nothing."

"Stage two – another tooth." And Reid's other tooth was dropped into Aaron's hand. One of the teeth had been only half removed, some of the roots would still be in the gum, the other though had been ripped out with full roots.

"This – this still could be anyone's." He tried not to look at the objects in his hand.

"Yes it could be, but this is definitely Spencer's." and he flipped on the recording of the screams the sound of the ripped of teeth from a mouth and more screaming which suddenly cut off to the sounds of laughter.

Hotch looked up at the masked man and now gripped the teeth tightly in his hand.

"Now this." And into Aaron's other hand a bloody ripped off thumb nail.

Again Aaron just stared at it and then looked up at the masked man. "Again this could be anyone's."

"Oh Hotchner I wish you could see the smile behind my mask. Can you see the screen alright from there, I don't want you to miss anything."

A small nod. He was dreading what they were going to show him now.

The screen sprang into life to show Spencer's battered face. His mouth was swollen and he had blood around his mouth and nose. Aaron held the teeth tighter in his hand. "You bastards." He muttered.

Hotch watched as they hammered the thing behind his nail and he heard the new screams and the begging for them to stop and he saw them rip the nail from the flesh of his thumb.

"Why are you doing this to him?"

"Why? Well so you can watch it obviously! I thought that was pretty clear. He is taking this so we won't hurt you. Such a sweet boy, but will you take that much pain for him? How much will you take before you scream for us to stop?"

…………………………

Floyd stood outside the warehouse door. "One flight down. They are under our feet." And he started to walk forwards again. Morgan pulled out his pistol.

"This is not a good idea Floyd." Jogging to keep up with the now – it seemed – revitalised Flanders.

"This my friend is one of the best ideas I have had in a long time. You might want to close your eyes for some of it. This will be like a scratch and sniff horror movie – like Sweeney Todd but the audience will feel and smell that arterial spray. Come and enjoy the adventure of a life time my friend."

And Floyd was off again running around the building searching for a way down to his kill.

* * *

_Sweeney Todd__:- They all deserve to die

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_


	11. Chapter 11 Dinner for Two

Dinner for Two

_Sleep is pain's easiest salve: - John Donne_

Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is not mine.

"The moment you pull that trigger we have lost, so put the damned thing away. We need stealth here, not your door kicking FBI shouting bull in the china shop routine. If you don't think you can handle it then wait here. I can do this alone."

Morgan stood next to Floyd looking at a big metal door. "They are through there?" Putting the gun slowly away.

Floyd nodded.

"OK the gun is holstered but I warn you I will use it if I need."

Flanders placed a hand on the door lock and there was a soft click as the lock slid back.

"How the hell?"

"Now total silence, or I will stop you here and now. Understand?"

A nod from Morgan.

…………………….

Aaron watched the monitor in numb silence. He couldn't see much of what they were doing to Spencer because of the angle of the camera, but he could hear. He could hear the moans and the howls of pain. He could see the tears in Reid's eyes and the fresh blood dripping from his mouth as more blood from somewhere was expelled from between his broken bloodied lips.

"Stop! Stop this. Leave him." Aaron took a step towards the monitor as though it would bring him closer to Reid and nearer to be able to comfort him.

White mask said something into his mic. "Stop, but keep him awake. I don't want that one sleeping." He then turned to Hotch. "You are willing to take his pain for him. This is good." He indicated for his men to do their job.

Aaron was pulled back away from the lap top and his hands where secured in front of him. One of them left the room and returned with a length of rope and a chair. He stood on the chair and slipped one end of the rope through a ring on the ceiling and then passed the other end through the ring on the wall where Aaron had been held to previously. The rest of the rope was tied around the bed leg which was in turn embedded into the cement floor.

They pulled on the rope forcing Aaron's hand's above his head and then pulling until only his toes were on the floor. White mask then called in the UnSub with his cane. He stood to the side so as not to be in the way of the camera and started to whip Aaron across his back. After three hits White mask stopped the show and moved behind Aaron and ripped his blooded shirt up the back to the collar and tucked the ends over his shoulders. "I am sure Dr Reid will want to see the full effect here." And the caning began again. Hotch wanted to scream out and move away but the length of rope only gave him a few inches movement. He could feel already the blood trickling down his back and the blood in his mouth as he big down on his lip trying to suppress the screams which were still escaping as small cries and whimperings. Tears of pain ran down his face as he wondered if they had inflicted this treatment on Reid.

………………….

Spencer was still laying across the table with his wrists bound tightly. He had tried to pull his hands free and succeeded only in making his wrists bleed. They held his head up and when his eyes dropped in their need to sleep they did something to awaken him again. They poured salt water over his back causing a long drawn out howl of pure agony.

For now they left him alone. Just pulling his head up off the table and occasionally slapping his face or kicking the backs of his legs to keep him awake.

And now through the fog which had enveloped his mind he could see something on the monitor. At first he couldn't make out what was happening. Without his glasses everything was blurred but as it all came into a fuzzy focus he realised what it was. Aaron being whipped with the same cane which had been used on him. Reid tried to talk by his words seemed confused and muffled and a long way off. "Stop" was the only coherent word he managed and that was stuttered and lisped through his swollen mouth and fogged up mind.

Spencer didn't see if they stopped the attack on Aaron. He didn't see much at all. He felt his head being pulled back again and he felt a fist to the side of his head and he heard a fist contacting with the other side. All pain suddenly gone as something impacted with the back of his head and his face was slammed down onto the table where he lay unmoving with blood pooling slowly under his head.

……………………

Aaron heard. "He said to stop."

And suddenly the whipping ceased. He was turned around so he could see the monitor again.

"You friend has volunteered to take your pain again. You are a lucky man to have such a loyal man. Such a shame you kicked him out of the FBI he was such an amusement. But I suppose that small problem with the addiction didn't help your decision. A weak man in so many ways but look now, how strong he is being for you." White now spoke into his mic. "I am bored. Finish him."

Aaron screamed out "No!" as he watched the UnSubs pulling Reid's head back, he looked at the empty resigned look on Reid's face and saw the way his head snapped to the side with the force of the first blow. Hotch could see the Reid's hands which hand been clenching and unclenching suddenly stop and with the next hit to the other side of the head blood sprayed from his mouth and nose. Aaron continued to scream "Leave him alone!" as he watched Reid's eyes staring out into nothing, then the crack with the crow bar to the back of his head and his head falling forwards. Finally allowed to rest. His long wavy hair soaking up the blood trickling from is ear. Aaron just let himself hang from the rope wondering if this time it was real or was this another trick, but the more he looked at the hands and the way Reid's hair flopped over his face the more he wanted to be sick. He watched as a hand came into view and pushed the hair off Spencer's face.

……………………..

Floyd saw one of them walking out of a door and closing it behind him. Perfect target. He put a hand on Morgan's shoulder. "Just wait." In a whisper.

Morgan watched Floyd moving down the side of the corridor. When he was about five foot away from the masked man he pounced. Morgan had never seen anything quite like it. Flanders ripped the side of the man's neck out in one bite. He watched Floyd pull the twitching man closer and rip into his throat, then with fingers which seemed to have entered the flesh on the back of his neck he pulled him back towards Derek. The kill had been made in total silence. All Morgan could think to say was. "Shit man." As the corpse was dropped at his feet much like a hunting dog would bring back his master's kill.

Flanders wiped the blood from his face. "I am feeling better already, but something is not right. We need to hurry." Without warning Floyd opened the door the man had just left. Whatever Floyd did was completed before Derek could tear his eyes away from the body at his feet. He heard a gurgling moan and again silence. Derek moved quickly to the door and looked in. Flanders was dripping with blood and licking his fingers. Three men lay in growing puddles. Ripped apart by Floyd's bare hands. It was slowly registering why Reid stayed with this man. How the hell can you tell someone like that, that you wanted to end a relationship? You couldn't. How long had Reid been living in fear of this man? What had it done to his psyche? Small wonder he had turned to the painkillers to block out what this insane man (?) was doing to him. Suddenly the hatred Morgan had always felt for Floyd was back. The man was a monster.

Flanders sensed the change in Morgan's smell immediately. He looked back at him. "You have a better idea?"

Morgan indicated his gun "Actually yes I do."

A raised eyebrow from Floyd and they moved onwards. "Spencer is close. But there is something very wrong. We need to be quick."

Another closed door. Floyd stood and looked at it for a while. Morgan could see he was concentrating on something. He watched Floyd's forearm wipe the blood off his face and he watched him put a hand to the door handle. "Reid is here. I can smell his blood." And a worrying clenching in the pit of his stomach. This new feeling was distracting. Derek saw hesitation.

"What's wrong?" He moved closer and now he saw Flanders swallow. "Flanders, what the hell is wrong?"

Floyd shook his head. "I don't know." He turned the handle and pushed open the door. Four masked faces turned to look at him but his whole mind was taken up by the bloodied beaten unmoving form laying restrained across the table. He looked from Reid to the masks and back again. "You really shouldn't have done that you know." Floyd's voice was low and menacing as he walked into the room towards Reid. Derek remained standing in the door way and watched as the men allowed Flanders to undo the restraints on Reid's wrists and let him flop to the floor. "This." He pointed to Reid. "I hope you enjoyed this because this is the image which will accompany you to hell."

Morgan moved in towards Reid as Flanders moved away. He didn't want to watch what he was doing. The sounds were bad enough. He quickly felt for a pulse on Reid's bruised neck and found something faint and erratic. When the silence finally reached Morgan's ears he spoke. "I think we are losing him Flanders." Morgan heard something which sounded like ripping and Floyd was at his side.

"Open his mouth."

Morgan slipped fingers between Reid's teeth and carefully opened Reid's mouth "What are you doing? Hell man stop it. Get off him!" and now Morgan was shouting and trying to push Floyd away as he squeezed blood into Spencer's mouth. The backhand to Morgan's face stopped him for a split second and then the backhand was returned.

Floyd looked up at him. "Go close the lap top and stop moaning. You want him alive don't you? Isn't that why I am here?" He looked up to see Morgan slowly stepping away towards the lap top. "Spence babe it's me. You're gonna be alright now. I have you. I need to go and find Aaron. Morgan will stay with you OK?" He didn't know if Reid could hear him, but now he stood and looked at Derek. "You stay here with your gun and protect him. I have a nasty feeling what I just did was seen on the webcam." Floyd left the room without looking back.

……………………

Aaron watched in horror as Flanders came into view on the monitor. He watched as he took the restraints off Spencer and let him fall to the floor and he watched Floyd rip the masked torturers apart. Tearing at their faces and ripping out their throats. He watched White walk over to the lap top and slam it shut.

"It seems that there is a small rescue party. Such a shame they are too late to save your little buddy. I am sure his genius brain is mashed to a pulp." He pulled out a gun and held it under Aaron's jaw. "Now let us see what your strange bedfellow will do when he gets here."

_Private Joker__:- A day without blood is like a day without sunshine._


	12. Chapter 12 Promises Kept

Promises Kept

_Love is a promise, love is a souvenir, once given never forgotten, never let it disappear__:- __John Lennon _

Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is not mine.

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Derek sat on the floor and pulled Reid closer. He was almost afraid to touch him there seemed to be cuts covering his body. He lay Spencer's head on his lap and spoke quietly to him. This person who could annoy the hell out of him with his random facts. Now he wanted him to respond in some way. Anything would do – just a twitch of the fingers, just something so he knew Reid was still in there somewhere. "It's OK Floyd is sorting it out. He's gone to get Hotch. Everything will be alright. Just try to wake up a bit for me man, I need to know you can hear me."

…………………….

Floyd ran. He was revitalised and ready for anything. He could smell Hotch. He had a smell he used to loath but had come now to love. Floyd stopped running for a while and leaned on the wall and just took in the scents from around him. He inhaled the smells of blood and sweat and it made his skin tingle with excitement. He could smell Aaron's fear and he could smell the fear of someone else. This interested Floyd so he crouched to get a better sense of what it was.

A frown and he stood. Quickly he was on the move again. Racing down the passage way towards Aaron. At the end of the passage was a metal door with a window set about central. He stood to the side of it and just listened. There was silence but he knew this is where Aaron was. He could smell his blood and his sweat, his pheromones and his fear. He could smell someone else too and this was a bitter smell of hate and anger and fear. Floyd took a deep breath. Still not working at one hundred percent but much more able than before. If he got too badly injured in there he wouldn't be able to heal for a long time. He closed his eyes and put his fingers gently on the door. The locked slid open and the door slowly began to open. He still stood out of sight of whoever was in there and waited.

"I know you are out there Flanders."

Floyd stood and listened. What he wanted was whoever it was in there to come out but when he heard the sound of a gun being readied and the almost inaudible sound of Aaron he knew he had to make a move. Slowly he moved and stood in the doorway. He had to quickly take in the situation and access how he was going to eat the guy in the white mask. Well raw obviously but how to get to him without him killing Aaron.

"Step back away from the door or I will kill him."

Floyd didn't move. "No you won't."

The gun was pushed harder up into Aaron's jaw. "Get back – start walking down the corridor or I swear I will kill him."

"And you think one dead FBI agent is going to bother me?" A frown. "why do you think that?" A step forward.

"I told you I will kill him!"

"I know I was listening. I told you that you won't." Another step. "Did you see my display on your lap top?" He avoided eye contact with Hotch. Another step.

"I will kill him! One more step you murdering cannibalistic pervert!"

"Oh you know me!" A scowl. "Then you know I am going to pot roast your arse. Put the sodding gun down and step away from Hotchner before I come over there and I promise I will rip off your balls with my teeth." Another step forwards.

"I am warning you!" Shouting at Floyd now who was getting uncomfortably close to him.

"And I am telling you. I will count to five and you _will _move away from Agent Aaron Hotchner or will do something very painful to you. Your choice. ONE!"

No movement.

"Two." He glanced at Hotch who was staring back with big eyes.

"Three." Another step forwards.

"FOUR!" Crouching.

"Five." Floyd pounced.

White mask didn't even see him coming. He was knocked back away from Hotch who was sent swinging by the force of Floyd pulling White away from him. Aaron tried to steady himself to see what Floyd was doing and now wished he hadn't. Floyd it seemed kept his promises.

……………………………

Derek was sitting with Reid's head in his lap gently stroking his hair. His gun laying next to him when he caught movement out of the corner of his eye. Slowly he looked up to see a man in a mask pointing a pistol at him.

"Get up and move away from the freak."

Derek didn't move. He had no intention of leaving Reid. Morgan slightly adjusted the way he was sitting and kept watching the masked guy. Derek moved quickly and both guns fired simultaneously. Morgan saw the UnSub collapse into a heap with a hole in his head at the same time he felt Reid jerk and make a soft sigh. Morgan's stomach tied it's self in a knot. He was scared to look and see what had happened. The bullet was a through and through in his upper arm. It was bleeding but non fatal. Well would be if Reid wasn't already in shock and if he hadn't already lost too much blood.

He pulled Reid tighter to him. "Man I am sorry. I am going to get you the hell out of here." From somewhere he could hear the unearthly screams of someone being introduced to Floyd and he heard Reid moan and saw his fingers twitch in response.

"Wait."

"Reid? Don't talk man, I will get you out of here."

"Morgan? Wait." And his voice faded away again as Derek felt the heavy breathing of sleep.

Derek sat on the cold floor and listened to the screams. How long had it been going on for now? He looked down at Reid and wiped some of the blood off his face. "OK I will wait." A sigh. If this man hadn't been totally destroyed before, he was now and this time he couldn't blame Floyd.

…………………..

"Floyd no!" Aaron was shouting but his voice was drowned out by the screams of White. There was no arterial spray just lots of blood. Floyd had defiantly kept his promise to this man and was now ripping bits off him with his hands. "Floyd for god's sake stop."

He ripped at the man's face and tore at his chest. He forced his fingers through the flesh of his abdomen and ripped his stomach open. White was pouring blood from where Floyd's first target had been. The skin was hanging off his face and now his stomach was ripped open.

"Did I say I would hurt you? Didn't I tell you?! Did you listen to me! Stop your pathetic sodding noise before I make this worse." Floyd's face was looking down at White who wasn't very white anymore.

"Floyd stop. Stop it now." Aaron was trying to pull back the rage Floyd was feeling. "Just leave him and get me down." Hotch heard a ripping sound and a sigh.

"Leave him. Have you seen what this son of a bitch has done to my Spence? Have you seen the mess he has left him in? He left him for dead Aaron and for that and for what he has done to you he will pay." Floyd turned and looked at Hotch properly for the first time and something odd happened. He felt that odd twisting in his stomach he reserved for Spencer. He slowly stood up and looked down at the thing at his feet. He had ripped his face off and was holding the flesh in his hand. He looked down at it and threw it into a corner.

"Aaron." And he stamped down on the Whites throat finishing him off quickly. "Agent Aaron Hotchner."

Hotch was slightly freaked out by the teeth he could see when Floyd smiled. Red blood stained and very sharp looking. Floyd walked slowly towards him and then moved around to his back.

"Aaron, they hurt you." Hotch could feel hands gently touching his back.

"Floyd let me down. I want to see Reid." He tried to move around to face Floyd again but Flanders just moved around with him.

"Spence is with Morgan. Don't worry."

"I heard gun shots."

"'Tis fine. Stop worrying." And he spun Hotch around to face him. "Hey handsome." And Hotch could feel Floyd unbuttoning what was left of his shirt.

"Floyd I am telling you to stop now, we don't have time for your games, we need to find Reid and get out of this place. As it is I don't know how I am going to explain all of this…." His speech was cut short by Flanders finger on Aaron's lips.

"Hush now." And the finger was replaced by lips as he wrapped his arms around Hotch's neck. He pulled away slightly and looked Aaron in the eyes. "We will finish this later, I promise you. Another time. We need to get you boys to hospital."

Floyd moved away and untied Hotch. He fell to his knees with a sigh of relief. Floyd put his hand down for Aaron to pull himself up with. "I still don't know how you managed to burn pizza."

The two of them walked slowly back to where Flanders had left Reid.

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_One must have a good memory to be able to keep the promises that one makes__: -__Friedrich Nietzsche

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	13. Chapter 13 Love, Fear, Betrayal

Love, Fear, Betrayal

Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is not mine.

_Love, to be real, must cost - it must hurt - it must empty us of self: - Mother Teresa

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They stepped over the body in the door way and stood looking at the bleeding mess in Morgan's arms. Derek looked up at them both, his damp eyes flicking from one to the other. There was blood smeared across Floyd's face and under Aaron's nose and around his chin was dried blood from the attacks on him.

"We good to go now?" Derek was now looking back down at Reid. "He is sleeping."

Flanders walked over and crouched down in front of Morgan. He ran his fingers over the side of Spencer's face. "Let me carry him. You help Aaron."

Derek looked past Floyd to Hotch standing in the doorway. He gave a hardly perceptible nod. "I can manage. Morgan you need to call the medics. Let Flanders carry Reid out of here."

Floyd carefully slipped his arms under Spencer. He could feel the dampness of blood on his back. His clothes were damp where he had been laying in water. "I've got you now." Whispered in Reid's ear. He looked over at Morgan. "May I suggest we take the lap tops?" Derek relinquished his hold on Reid and stood up. He moved to the lap top and put it under his arm.

Hotch gave a twitch to his mouth. "I will get the other. Morgan – medics."

………………….

Aaron and Floyd walked through the hospital grounds together. Hotch had dressings on his back and a bruise under his chin but otherwise was not too bad. Flanders had refused all offers from the staff of a change of clothes. His jeans shirt and waistcoat were encrusted with blood from various sources. None of it his.

"He is going to be alright." Floyd spoke without removing the cheroot from his mouth.

Hotch stopped and looked at him. "I'm not so sure. He was still recovering from the last bout of being ripped apart. We all were."

"Healing takes time Aaron. We only need time." He was standing looking at Aaron's face. "He will be OK." Brushing some stray hair from Hotch's forehead.

"You heal. Spencer might not. Physically I am sure he will recover. Mentally – emotionally – he was already teetering on the edge."

Flanders stood close to Hotch – toe to toe. "You are thinking or his mother." And a small peck on Aaron's neck with his lips. "Spence is not is mum." A tongue along his jawline. "We will be there to help him get over this." He felt Hotch's hands link behind his head. "I promise – and you know I keep my promises – I will be gentle with him." He spat out the cheroot.

A raised eyebrow from Hotch. "I will protect him from you."

"I know." Lips nearly touching.

"I won't let you hurt him."

"I told you I won't but if I choose to there is little you can or will do about it."

A frown from Hotch but Floyd could feel the hands pulling him closer. "You stink. You smell of blood."

"I like the smell." And the lips joined.

Hotch pushed Floyd away. "Really Floyd, you smell quite bad. Go home and get showered and changed. I will stay with Spencer. Nothing is going to change for a while as you know."

Flanders sighed. "How to get home? I have no money, I have no transport." Walking in small circles. "Take me back to the museum. The car is there."

"I can give you taxi fair. I don't have a car with me either." Aaron was wearing sweat pants and a hoodie the hospital had provided for him. He pulled his wallet out of a pocket and drew out some cash. "Take this and get a cab. If anything happens I will call the apartment phone."

Flanders took the money from Aaron's hand with one hand and grabbed his wrist with the other. One at a time he kissed each of Hotch's fingers. "I won't be long and I still have to finish what we started earlier." He dropped Hotch's hand and walked away towards a small taxi rank outside the hospital.

Hotch turned and slowly walked back to the hospital. He felt so helpless and guilty standing looking at the younger man set up with drips. His skin pale and ripped. They had fixed what they could in his mouth, removing the bits of tooth still in his gum. They had dressed his wounds and they had talked to Hotch about his internal injuries but all of this would heal. It was the emotional mess he would be left in which really bothered him. That and having to leave him at the mercy of Floyd all day while he worked.

He went into Reid's room and sat by the bed. How many times had he had to do this? And this last time a lot of this damage was to save him. He moved forwards and picked up Spencer's limp hand. "Never do that again you hear me?" He squeezed his hand and just sat talking to him about all and everything. Everything except Floyd.

………………….

Floyd stood in the empty apartment and looked at the floor. The bottle of whisky on the counter beckoned to him. "One quick drink and a smoke." He drank directly from the bottle and pulled something to smoke from out of the drawer. "One quick drink, a smoke and a snort, and then I will be ready." He stood feeling light headed and a bit confused. Something wasn't quite right. Something had gone wrong.

He ran his fingers through his hair and walked slowly to the bedroom "Shower and changed."

He moved slowly suddenly feeling lethargic. He stripped off and stood looking in the mirror for a while. He body was covered in small scars and marks from the years of damage he had taken. Some gunshot wounds, some were knife, and some claw. He ran lazy fingers over the scars then looked at the bed. "Shower and changed. It might wake me." He pulled a clean set of clothes from the cupboard and walked almost drunkenly to the bathroom. "Why am I so tired?" The effort of turning the shower on almost made him pass out.

Flanders crawled into the shower and sat under the hot water letting it wash over his hair. "Maybe I need to heal more. Maybe I won't recover properly. But I was ok earlier." Muttering and mumbling to himself. "He looked down to see the water turning red with the blood now running freely from his nose. "I need my stuff. Where is my stuff?" Wet and dripping blood he crawled from the shower to try to locate the jeans he had stripped off. In his pocket he had something to snort. He needed it now.

Floyd got as far as the bedroom before he started to vomit and retch. Dark clots of blood splattered from his nose to join the garish red muck he was expelling from his mouth. "Ah shit." He mumbled as he began to shake, his arms no longer able to support him he slid down into the mess on the floor.

"So predictable. An animal never changes it routines." Floyd vaguely heard the voice from behind him.

……………………

Spencer could feel someone holding his hand. He wanted to pull it away, knowing that soon that hand would start to hurt. He could hear words but couldn't make out what they were but they sounded threatening and spiteful. He couldn't move and he couldn't see, but he could feel. He knew what the people in this place had done to him. He knew they had touched him and manhandled him thinking he wouldn't know or care but he did and now they had drugged him so he couldn't escape. Again he tried to pull his hand away from the thing holding it – squeezing it.

Reid attempted to open his eyes but something was not letting him. The drugs they had him on so they could carry out their experiments stopped him from escaping. Did they think he would never recover? Had Hotch given him over for drug testing? Did they think he was brain dead? He tried to scream out for help, but nothing happened. He just lay there feeling something holding him too tightly.

A breath on his face_. 'Oh please no.'_ Getting closer. _'please don't hurt me.' _Something holding his face and touching his lips with its. _'stop please don't do this please stop.' _And now he could hear the talking again. Threatening him with harm if he didn't do what they said. Telling him they will hurt Aaron if he didn't comply to their requests and all he could do was release a tear which he felt running down the side of his face.

…………………..

Aaron was sure Spencer's hand twitched. He talked to Spencer, telling him about things he had planned for them to do in the summer. The three of them maybe. If that is what he wanted. Anything. He could have anything, but he needed to get better.

Hotch stood and leaned over Reid. He saw Spencer's breath hitch. Was he trying to wake up? Should he tell the doctors? He leaned over and gave Spencer a soft kiss on his dry bruised lips - gently oh so gently and as he pulled away he saw a small tear trickle down Reid's cheek.

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_Love is whatever you can still betray ... Betrayal can only happen if you love: - John LeCarre _

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**A/N: this fic will carry on under a new title...so for this section..this is then END...to be continued: Thank you.**


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